


But I can't touch what I see

by germain



Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series), One Direction (Band)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Coworkers - Freeform, F/F, Gen, Ghost Hunting, Oneshot, Secret Crush, friends - Freeform, just two gal pals really, office!AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-11
Updated: 2017-11-11
Packaged: 2019-02-01 01:03:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12693837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/germain/pseuds/germain
Summary: Louis and Harry are coworkers at the Buzzfeed office and co-creators of the hit series that investigates famous crime and supernatural cases.They visit an abandoned Maryland hospital with a dark past as a part of their ongoing investigation of whether are ghosts real (cue Louis’ shaking her head), and things happen.(a BF Unsolved 1d fic because, obviously, it was just a matter of time)





	But I can't touch what I see

**Author's Note:**

> I own absolutely nothing. Some quotes/events are borrowed from the series, something things are completely made up, a few episodes are merged into one. This specific case is made up too. I like both the boys (bfu) and the boys (1d), and there’s an alarming lack of girl!larry fics out there, so cue this. Do not send this to the bfu guys, anyone related to 1d, be it them or their families or friends, and do not repost or steal this, or the ghost of Al Capone will follow your around and comment on your fashion choices, and also curse you to eternity of horrible suffering. Don’t do it, demons.
> 
> and obviously, i had to use "Two Ghosts" for the title

"Dude, I don't like this."

"You've said that only about eleven times this evening."

"Yeah, so you know just how much I don't like this."

Another hard day in the busy lives of youtube paranormal investigators, another 100% haunted location. This episode took Harry and Louis, two Buzzfeed colleagues to an allegedly haunted old hospital just outside a town in Maryland, and really, the only thing it was haunted was by a serious rat overpopulation, at least according to Louis, the resident skeptic. Harry and Louis first met when they were picked for an internship at the Los Angeles Buzzfeed office some fourteen months ago and found themselves being desk-neighbours, and since then, their friendship grew deeper as they discovered they shared some interests and hobbies.

When Harry's show about True Crime cold cases took off and later got joined by a Supernatural series, Louis was a big fan and a supportive friend who always let her know how good the latest episode was, even if all of the "evidence" of ghost activity was probably just rustling clothes or wild animals. After a few months just as the show was really taking off and the fan base was growing, Harry's co-creator, to whom she from then on only referred with words starting with "Z" but never her name, or as Buzzfeed office's own ghost entity, decided to leave for another department, Harry found herself distressed and anxious about the future of a project she was truly interested in and devoted to. That was when Louis stepped in and offered she would join the show as Harry's partner in crime-solving and ghost hunting, both still sitting at their chairs after the office had gotten empty and dark, as Harry was reluctantly telling Louis of her trouble.

Another few months and the show has truly blown up, Louis has become a meme with one of her sarcastic (and disrespectful towards the ghosts) quotes, and the budget had expanded, meaning Harry could now have near-death experiences all over the States instead of just locally.

Not bad, if they only joined the company for dubious reasons - Harry because she had struggled to find a position in a film review magazine, and Louis as a last resort after a serious bout of crisis regarding her journalism major. She was originally truly interested in it, she revealed to Harry once as they walked through a park painted yellow and orange with the approaching autumn, but it had disappointed greatly lately with the hypocrisy and purposeful misinformation she has suddenly seen everyone. Not wanting to leave the field fully, and desiring a working experience to accompany the degree for practical reasons, even if her heart was not in it anymore and the future was a looming dark cloud, filling her with anxiety in alone times, she applied for an open position at the site and won it. It could be worse than searching for cat photos or making an article of screenshotted posts from twitter, she told herself. It was Unsolved that finally convinced her she made the right choice, even if she didn't know where the future would take her. Getting murdered by a demon on tape was a better prospect than trying to pay a rent in Los Angeles while surviving on a minimal wage of a retail job anyway.

The building they were in was creepy, but then again, which abandoned, old house wouldn't? Even your local pet shop would gain an ominous quality, had it been left without any care or repair for thirty years. The knowledge of its dark past would only encourage a visitor's mind to run wild.

A sound coming from the outside made Harry jump and turn into the direction of its source, pointing her night-vision camera towards it as if it were a weapon.

"An owl, probably." Louis reasoned.

"Or a whimper, maybe."

"Sure, the whimpering soul of an owl, miserable, cause she's been stuck in here for eternity, forever interrupted by teenagers coming to get spooked."

Harry glared at her, like she always did when Louis mocker her assumptions about everything being a ghost (always in a friendly way, though, only in a friendly way), or disregarded them as a completely normal and reasonable sound.

Her hair was half in a bun, half down, shoulder-length after her recent radical cut, and it moved whenever she turned her head rapidly. Well, of course it did, since it was attached to said head. Louis just found herself hang onto that detail.

Harry’s brow furrowed as she regarded the display of the gadget carefully, but judging by a lack of any freak out, nothing showed up. They had been at the location for about an hour now, first investigating the gardens, and now the main building, but so far, to no avail. Harry was, as always, both disappointed and relieved. Louis was just glad she brought her jean jacket.

“Do you ever consider that maybe the owners are fucking with us?” Louis pondered after a few moments of silence when no ghost or any other entity decided to make their presence known.

Harry frowned at her. “What do you mean?”

“Well, think about it. They’re renting this place out for tours, they need it to be spooky and scary since the guides and the maintenance costs them something, and any proof of activity, be it a video recording, a photograph, someone’s experience, whatever, brings in more people eager to experience the chills first-hand. So when someone like us, established youtubers with a nice following show up, it’s only in their best interest that we get some material, no matter how ambiguous.” Louis reasoned.  
She wouldn’t out right mock the show, no matter how sceptical she tended to be to any apparitions or proof, she was still interested in the topic, but she considered it her responsibility to make sure they’re still staying within some bounds. Even if it meant people would speculate about her being a demon in the comments section.  
Harry heard her out with attention fixed wholly on Louis face. It was just something that she did, give you all her attention to the point where you felt like you were staring at a room in Versailles that had every inch decorated with attention to the tiniest detail. Overwhelming, not in a bad way, though. The inhabitants of the afterlife were forgotten for a second.

“I mean, sure. I’ve thought of that. But I don’t think they’d risk getting caught doing that, because it would hurt them more than just us having bad luck and not seeing anything the one evening we spend here. And I’d like to think they’re as passionate about this as we are.”

Louis didn’t correct her about that last sentence and the perhaps incorrect use of the second person plural.

Louis shrugged. “True.”

She didn’t have to add much. By now, the need to literally explain their stance or opinion in order not to offend the other by being seemingly dismissive has passed as they settled into a comfortable friendship.

Harry gave her a soft smile and turned on the heel of her sneakers, walking slowly down the common room they found themselves in in the search for a boy called Terry who supposedly ran around the rooms and pinched the visitor’s calves.

She wasn’t sure if they should leave that bit in the final cut of the episode, but they could decide that in the post-production process.

“Should we try to talk to him?” She suggested.

“Sure. Wanna start?”

“Do I want to avoid having you insult the ghost of a little boy, you mean?” Harry snorted.

“Dude, what the hell?! I wouldn’t.” Louis protested. “Is that what you think of me? That I go around, mocking the ghosts of little children who had to suffer through a short and horrible life?”

“No, bet than again you called a demon ‘a weak, stupid fuck’, so I can never tell.”

Louis threw her hands in the air, careful about her light and camera. “He’s a fucking half-man, half-goat mutant who goes around ramming people in the ass with his horns for using his bridge. Sue me.”

Harry began to giggle and sound the sound spilled into a laugh.

“What?”

“He goes around ramming people in the ass?” Harry got out between bursts of laugh.

Louis rolled her eyes. “Oh, fuck you, Styles.”

“You called him a horny boy back then!”

“God forbid I joke around in this serious business of ghost-hunting.”

“Hope you have that in your LinkedIn description by now. Louis Tomlinson, Buzzfeed video producer, cheese connoisseur serious ghost-hunter.”

“I tell you once that I like mozzarella and you-“

Louis protest was interrupted by a distant sound and Harry’s yelp.

“What the fuck was that?” she hissed, trying to search for the source with her torch, but only finding the door leading into a wide hallway.

“I think it came from the floor above. Probably the wind.”

“It sounded like a screech. As if someone was moving some furniture.”

“Harry, I don’t think anyone chooses to spend the afterlife by moving heavy stuff around.”

“Maybe they do if they don’t like being interrupted-“

The sound came again, this time louder, as if its source was right at the top of the staircase on the opposite side of the hallway they walked into as they exited the common room, Terry the boy ghost completely forgotten.

“Oh Jesus fuck, we’re gonna die-“

“No weren’t not, it’s probably just some teenager-“

The sound of claws on hardwood came, familiar to Louis, who had a labradoodle waiting for her at home, babysat by a friend.  
From the corner of her eye she saw Harry who was hunched in on herself, face twisted into an expression of utter horror, but camera still pointed in the right direction.  
Something moved in the darkness of the silent building, and Louis made a determined step forward, placing her hand on Harry’s broad back, who jumped at the touch, but leaned into the loose embrace when she recognised who was behind her.

Another scratch, and then a shadow came spilling down the stars, and – 

“Oh my fucking God.” Harry swore, breathless.

Louis started laughing.

“Goddamn fucking bloody- oh God, fuck. A fucking racoon, fuck me.”

“Watch the language, pal. There are young ears present.”

The little animal ran down the stairs and promptly disappeared in the shadows below them, probably not appreciating the company and noise.

“He was probably as scared as you were.”

“Noone in the history of the universe has been ever scared as I just was.” Harry complained bashfully, leaning on her bent knees breathing heavily. 

“Well, did prove that the walls of this place are very much alive, so at least we have that, even if it means we almost died for it.”

Harry glared at Louis. “Don’t you dare say you weren’t worried, even for a second.”

Louis shrugged. “I was curious. Intrigued, perhaps, but my first assumption wasn’t that a murderous ghost was coming to kill me because I interrupted him during his regularly scheduled furniture moving.”

Harry raised an eyebrow, straightening herself up from her slump and fixing her bun. “Regularly scheduled furniture moving?” 

“Sure.” Louis played along. “Every night, eight to eleven pm, baby.”

“Eight to eleven? That seems like a lot of time. That would mean he’s buff. A buff ghost, with nice, buff ghost arms.” She grinned.

“Oh God, don’t even insinuate that you want to fuck a ghost. We’re here on business, for science.”

Harry raised her head and spoke to the dark space above the staircase with clear amusement in her voice. “Sorry ghost guy, but you’re not my type anyway.”

“Tough luck, buddy. Let’s move on. What else you have in store?”

Louis pointed her camera at Harry’s face as they began to walk down the corridor towards the main staircase, passing the walls with swears, pentagrams, and crude drawings on them.

“The basement that is supposed to be the creepiest, most active part of the place has been shut for visitors since the stairs are in a hazardous condition. I can’t tell you whether I’m disappointed or relieved.” Harry admitted with a laugh, receiving one from Louis in response. “And since we’re done with the patients’ rooms and the common grounds, we’re now going into the isolation ward where they placed people with dangerous diseases. Then, we’ll both take turns doing a minute alone in the morgue, and we’re done with this place.”

“Cool.”

Louis followed Harry as they cautiously walked up the staircase. It creaked under their feet, but since the building was regularly open for visitors and guided groups, everything was safe, even if it was left purposefully dirty and creepy.

They climbed onto the third floor, and approached an old sign that warned them that this wing houses patients with easily transmittable diseases who must be put into isolation and special measures must be taken here. Louis made sure to get it on camera.

“This gives me the creeps even without it being dark, creepy, and supposedly haunted.” Harry admitted. “Well…”

She hesitantly stepped into the dark hallway. There were rooms on each side, but the doors were either long gone, or hanging off the broken hinges. Pieces of furniture were strewn on the floor, and the rooms contained only metal beds and pain tables.

“There’s supposedly the ghost of an evil nurse who goes around stabbing people with a needle.”

“To be fair, if I had to climb those stairs a few times a day and live with the knowledge that I could contract whatever these poor patients had, then I would be a bit snappy too. I don’t imagine they had any, like, gloves, or those yellow suits that wrap around your whole body.”

“No, they probably washed their hands a bit more than the regular nurses, and that was it.” Harry said. Then, in an attempt to lift the mood, she continued. “Feel any stabs yet?”

“Feel any…” Louis leered. “Feel any pricks?”

Harry laughed. “People died here, Louis.” She chastised.

“People died in your local Walmart. Doesn’t mean you can’t laugh there. I respect this place and I feel sorry for all the unfortunate souls who suffered here, but that doesn’t mean I can’t joke about it.”

“I wouldn’t want to die in a Walmart.” Harry mused. “I worked in a supermarket when I was a teenager, and it was literal hell. I think I’d prefer this place, actually.”

“Why don’t we ask the nurse, then?” Louis suggested. “Hey, hello, nurse, whose name we don’t know. How do you feel about this place?”

“Can you tell us your name?” Harry held up her device, showing it off to an invisible audience. “This is a little tool, a voice box, that helps you communicate with us. Can you please say something, anything, and we can pass on the message? What is your name?”

Nothing came up besides the white noise.

“Were you really a nurse?” Louis tried. “Why do you stab people?”

“Anyone who works as a nurse probably feels like stabbing people at some point.” Harry quipped.

“Fair enough.”

The device continued scanning frequencies, but came up with nothing.

Then it made a noise, and then another, as if someone was quickly switching radio stations.

“It’s probably just the radio, we’re not far from the town.” Louis reasoned.

Harry ignored her, carefully listening instead.

Then, a sound came through that made her eyebrows shoot up and her mouth open wide.

She turned to Louis. “Dude, that sounded like ‘I’.”

“What sounded like ’I’?”

The device kept scanning.

“Can you tell us your name?” Harry prompted.

White noise followed, interrupted by a jumble of sounds.

Her expression grew frenetic. “That was ‘Emma’.”

“No, that was more like ‘Eughuawa’, which, to be honest, doesn’t really sound like a name. Surely they would remember a nurse of that name working here.”

Harry shook her head. “Oh God, I hate this part. Okay, my name is Harry. Can you repeat my name?”

Another human-like sounding noise answered her among the white noise.

“She said ‘Harry’.”

“That could have literally been anything. No offence, but I’m more inclined to say you stumbled across a local station playing Ariana Grande than it being a ghost.”

“The enunciation is too good for it to be Grande.”

Louis snorted. “Fair enough.”

Harry tried several more questions, but never got another clear reply.

Then, they walked around the wing, finding only abandoned, old rooms, dirt, and odd pieces of equipment, perhaps purposefully left behind to make the atmosphere even creepier.

When they were done with the third floor, they returned to the second one to find the last location to investigate, the morgue.

As they approached it, Harry narrated its gruesome history of epidemics, lack of staff, overcrowding, and dubious medical practices.

They stopped outside the door.

“Well-“ Louis held out her hand towards the door. “After you.”

“You won’t fool me into thinking you’re a gentleman, Tomlinson.” Harry remarked.

“There goes my elaborate plan of covering up my evil ways. See if I ever hold the door for you again or lend you my lipbalm.”

“Stop talking about lipbalm in a morgue, it offends the ghosts.”

“Your face offends the ghosts.” Louis stuck her tongue out.

The room was not big, and seemed more claustrophobic due to the lack of windows and the amount of steel metal equipment.

“It’s estimated thousands of bodies went through this room.”

“To be fair, it was a hospital, it was in use for decades, and a hospital is a place where you would expect more dead people than in most other places.” Louis challenged.

“Except one of the resident pathologists was a drunk who apparently robbed the bodies and sold some parts on the black market. Some sources even go as far to say some people died because he needed them to die.”

“Oh shit. So there’s a potential for lots of angry souls?”

“Yep.”

With that, Harry turned on her heels, as she videotaped the entire room as it surrounded her. She faced Louis again and made sure to have her in the shot to document her reactions. Louis had opted for jeans, Vans, a shirt, and a jacket, making her along with her short hair and her think black choker look like a teenager who sneaked in out of boredom and as a part of some dare.

She was looking back at Harry, awaiting her next steps.

Together, they challenged the doctor to appear, and mocked and insulted him together, Harry joining in for once, as she felt he deserved it for his horrible behaviour, but they got nothing, not even when they asked the patients to speak up.

When they figured it was going nowhere, Harry sighed and dramatically wiped her brow, exaggerating her joy at being done at the location.  
Louis laughed at her antics.

“Glad we’re leaving this place behind?” she asked.

“You can’t imagine. It’s not, like, outstandingly bad, not like Sallie house, but it’s still creepy in its own right.”

They exited the room and began to walk towards the exit.

“What’s the verdict, then?”

Harry recounted the events of the evening. “Well, we got good footage of the place, the most misplaced racoon in the world-“ 

Louis snickered.

“-and some contact with a ghost that you refuse to believe, so. An episode like any other, I’d say.”

“Lead us out with the dramatics, then, pal.”

Harry indulged her friend and adopted a dramatic, slowly speaking, growly voice she used for the theory sequences. “We got some footage of a ghost reaching out to us, but as its quality is ambiguous due to some factors such as the hospitals’ proximity to the town, the case will remain unsolved.”

They laughed together and walked down the steps outside the hospital, exiting it once and for all.  
***  
“How’s the Maryland ep going along?” Louis asked, playing with a rubber band ball as she sat on her table at the office. Harry sat next to her, wearing her black rimmed dioptric glasses, typing up some document at the computer.

She looked over at Louis and leaned her chin on her left hand, smiling slightly.

“Good, I’m editing in the stuff from the soundbooth and cutting it down to the appropriate length. Got the questions picked out for the prison post-mortem?”

Louis nodded. “Sure.”

Harry frowned at her and turned in her seat so that she was facing Louis. “Even some constructive ones that don’t call me a wimp for being reasonably concerned about spending the night in an eighteen century prison?”

Louis shrugged. “Maybe.”

Harry made a face at her. “To be fair, you can officially go around saying I would get freaked out if someone farted next to me.”

“I refuse to be ashamed of that!”

Louis threw the ball at Harry, who caught it and placed it on Louis’ desk, next to her denim-clad tight.

“Wanna get a lunch together,H?”

“Sure.” Harry turned towards the computer, saved the document, and switched off the screen. “Apparently, I will follow you down a dark hallway in a creepy, abandoned hospital. Can’t see why I wouldn’t follow you to the canteen.” She mumbled.

Louis bit her lip and grinned, fidgeting with the waist line of her shirt.

Harry got up and walked past the table, expecting Louis to follow.

She jumped off the table and patted her pocket to make sure she had her wallet. She caught the eye of her friend, colleague, and a part-time dog sitter Steve who gave her a knowing look.

She glared at him and stuck her tongue out, walking quickly to catch up with Harry.

Really, it’s no-one’s business with whom a girl goes ghost hunting. And if said ghost-hunting partner makes your heart beat faster than the prospect of seeing a ghost, well, that just might be none of your business, Steve.

-the end-


End file.
